BAT TRANG POTTERY VILLAGE

Bat Trang traditional pottery village is 10km from Hanoi capital toward the South East of Hanoi. It’s an ancient village, which is very famous for making ceramic products . From the central Hanoi, passing Chuong Duong bridge or Vinh Tuy bridge, along the dike of Red river until you see the signboard “ warmly welcome to Bat Trang traditional pottery village” then turn right, Bat Trang pottery village is one kilometer from the signboard.

Bat Trang Pottery Village BAT TRANG POTTERY VILLAGE THE ORIGIN OF BAT TRANG POTTERY VILLAGE (BUI THUY HA) 1.Located Bat Trang traditional pottery village is 10km from Hanoi capital toward the South East of Hanoi It’s an ancient village, which is very famous for making ceramic products From the central Hanoi, passing Chuong Duong bridge or Vinh Tuy bridge, along the dike of Red river until you see the signboard “ warmly welcome to Bat Trang traditional pottery village” then turn right, Bat Trang pottery village is one kilometer from the signboard The name Bat Trang - Bat Trang was known under the name of Bach Tho Phuong for along time Bach Tho Phuong means the white clay guild - And why did they call this land with name “ Bach Tho Phuong”? there’re reasons explain the name Bach Tho Phuong + Firstable, Bach Tho Phuong means the place had rich source of white clay + secondary, the name of their homeland is Bo Bat or Bach Bat, so they use “Bach” to named the village and remind their children about their home land - When was the name Bat Trang appeared? + the name of Bat Trang was first known during the Ly-Tran dynasty because it’s said that the bricks of foundation in Temple of Literature in Ha Noi was made in Bat Trang village + according to the “ Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu” the name of Bat Trang was appeared in 1352 History - culture of Bat Trang village Bat Trang Pottery Village Bat Trang Village is said to be established in the 14th or 15th century in several documents However, according to the villagers, the village perhaps appeared earlier It is said that, there are many legends about the establishment of Bat Trang pottery village And one of these tells that under Ly – Tran Dynasty, Bat Trang pottery village was established by the combination of famous families of Bo Bat village in Truong Yen namely: Tran, Vuong, Nguyen, Le, Pham with Nguyen NinhTrang- the first family came to Bat Trang In 1010, Ly Thai To King moved the capital from Hoa Lu to Thang Long During that time, in Truong Yen( Hoa Lu), there is a brick production village A foreman of Nguyen family- named Nguyen NinhTrang stayed in Bat Trang and started with production of the first Bat Trang bricks Those bricks are made from apyrous clay and fire at very high temperature and used to construct the foundation for palace in Royal Citadel So, why did Nguyen NinhTrang family remove Truong Yen to settle in Bat Trang village? There’re reason about this: + it’s from geographic: Bat Trang is not far from the capital, so it’s easy to business and transportation + Bat Trang near Red river so it had many favorable conditions to the craft and transportation + it’s said that, there was a rich source of white clay so it convenient for making pottery in Bat Trang village There is another legend relating to the established of Bat Trang pottery village It is said that, under the Ly dynasty, there were scholars : Hua Vinh Kieu ( in Bat Trang) , Dao Tri Tien ( in Tho Ha) , and Luu Phuong Tu ( in Phu Lang) They were sent to the North “ Tong” as the King’s envoy When they came back to the country via Shao Zhou, due to the bad storm, they had to stay overnight in a famous pottery village and had the chance to learn the craft The mission came to an end, they came back to the country then tauch the craft to their villagers: Bat Trang Pottery Village - Hua Vinh Kieutaugh the Bat Trang’s residents how to make the cracked white enamel - Dao Tri Tien taugh the Tho Ha’s residents how to make the yellow enamel - Luu Phuong Tu taugh the Phu Lang’s residents how to make the deep redyellowish enamel So, according to this legend, Bat Trang pottery village is established during the Ly dynasty, equals to North Tong dynasty before 1127 THE PROCESS OF MAKING POTTERY (NGUYEN THI DIEP) Have you tried making a pottery product? Today, I’ll talk you about the process of making pottery To make a pottery product, the potter have to go through hard stages Step 1: The soil selection process and soil blending In Bat Trang village, the potter use clay to make the pottery After choosing the suitable clay, they soak it in the water tank system including tanks in different heights Step 2: creating model According to the experience of Bat Trang villagers, the most important to make a perfect item is creating model The traditional method in Bat Trang is handmade in the turntable or called the wheel Step 3: decorating The product is decorated the pattern by carving, embossing, painting Step 4: enemalling The technique of glazing - Quay men is glazing both inside and outside the items at the same time - Duc men is glazing only inside the product - Kim men is glazing only outside the pottery Bat Trang Pottery Village Step 5: firing Finally, product is fired in the kiln with hight temperature (about 1200-1300 degreses C) in days nights After baking, products are brought out, classified and repaired in case there are mistakes And now we have the perfect product DECORATIVE MOTIFTS (DO VAN CANH) Decorative motifs are often embossed, engraved, painted blue - Embossed, engraved Stamping molds used in crafting up a new map for office wear printed on (floating or sinking) before the glaze and baked - On blue and white pottery In ancient times used directly pen (pen) Painter must be highly skilled, in harmony with the design of decorative ceramic wear this blue pottery raised to the level of art each of which is a work Potter also used many other decorative forms such as: indexing, applied enamel color flow, painted enamel With a brush and put a blue enamel wear the talented hands of generations of Bat Trang pottery workers with flexible strokes Recently Bat Trang techniques appear attractive floral decoration, a way of pre-printed on special paper imported from abroad, this particular type of pattern but is nice but our tradition The crafts just paste "paper flowers" multicolored enameled ceramic surface that has been baked in the oven and steaming.Common themes decoration is noble, quarter-quarter or is the traditional subjects such as leaf threads,, feathers, human subjects, animal parts, valances line patterns, flowers, lotus flower chrysanthemum , are expressed in the liberal brushstrokes and innovative and bold folk's talented potters Consequently, decorative threads on the Bat Trang ceramic products to life There are also inscriptions Bat Trang Pottery Village For example, of its artifacts is a censer on display at the National History Museum, the artist posed in the lotus blooming lotus flower with three stories or shaped incense burner in the form lotus leaf curling The bottom base is the pineapple incense lotus flowers enough, vividly decorated ENAMELS (HOANG THUY PHUONG) Beside Tho Ha and PhuLang pottery village , Bat Trang pottery village is famous for enamels which make beautiful and elegant for products According to pottery artisans in the village, Bat Trang pottery has mainly five type enamels, including jade enamel, brown enamel, ivory-white enamel, green enamel and cracked enamel In the past, the materials creating the enamels came mainly from nature, such as red stone, quicklime , rice husk ash and kaolin and the technique creating enamels was a secret of each family However, many secrets handed down from generation to generation gradually fell into oblivion Firstly, it’s blue enamel This is the earliest enamel used at Bat Trang from 14th century Green enamel is always coved by glossy white enamel It is used to draw on flower vase, jar, tea set, incense-burner with various topics such as landscape, castle, people… Secondly, it’s brown enamel The color of the enamel depends on pottery frame.This enamel is often red-yellowish, not glossy and on its face is lumpy It’s used to decorating embossed pattern Brown enamel together with green and ivory-white enamel are combined so as to express several theme such as Nguongdacloi, tung hac, To Vu chan de, Bat tien qua hai,… Thirdly, it’s ivory-white enamel This enamel is mainly used to cover on products’s face, rarely used to decorating We can see ivory-white enamel on incense-burner, roll statue, jar, statue of Bodhisattva sitting on the lotus, dragon statue… Forthly, it’s jade enamel From 14th to 19th century, jade enamel is popular side by side ivory-white and brown enamel Jade-enamal is used to decorate dragon head, jar with dragon and lotus, base of light It’ also draw cloud and embellish base- pillar and insence burner Bat Trang Pottery Village Fifthly, it’s cracked enamel This is a special enamel with different tracecracked Based on old document recorded cracked enamel which is only produced at Bat Trang pottery village in the end of 16th century Incense burner which was produced by Do Phu family in the end of 16th century is considered the earliest specimen of cracked enamel Its color is ivory-grey and cracked traits make up a lots of tetragens and triangles To preserve and promote the unique traditional enamels of Bat Trang pottery, artisan Tran Do, the 18th generation of the Tran family, one of the families having an age-old tradition in making pottery in Bat Trang, has researched and successfully found 70 traditional methods to creating precious enamels He has restored hundreds of ancient pottery products in the dynasties of Ly, Tran and Le with the traditional brown enamel Nowaday, Bat Trang pottery village also appears a lots of new enamels with lively and attractive colours but ancient enamels are considered the most beauty and sophistication enamel TRADITIONAL PRODUCT (PHAM THI NGOC) Basing on the purpose of use, Bat Trang pottery can be lassified as follows groups: Household utensils:including plate,flower vase, bowl, flower pot, tea set, cup, box, vase,jar,jug… Worship pottery products:including light holder,candleholder,incenseburne,pottery tray and sword Among which ,lightholder,incense burner ,are the valuable items to the current collection,because on many items,there are details of names of craftsmen , homeland, date of production and name of customers Those are very special characteristics of Bat Trang pottery 3.Potterydecorations:including house model pottery lamp, tiger statue,elephantstatue,dragon statue, Di Lac statue, Kim Cuong statue Bat Trang Pottery Village Due to the characteristics of soil,shaping on the pottery wheel with hands and the enamels,BatTrang potter products usually have these characteristics: thick,firm and relatively heavy,and the white enamels are usually ivory THE CRAFTMEN (TRAN PHUONG THAO) Overal, the role of artisans and craftmen of the village is very important The craftmen with their hight experience can make a lot of famous handicraft villages Their hight experience and the “ Golden hands “ help them creat many unique product That’s reason why the handicraft villages can exist and develop for a long time So, the bold cultural element’s of the traditional pottery has created many work of art and technique passed down from generation to generation, converged experince in the generation of talented artisans with products bearing is own identity, but it still bold and typical uniqueness of the nation Tran Do is know as “ The king of glaze” of Bat Trang village He has restored hundreds of ancient pottery from the Ly – Tran – le dynasties Vuong Manh Tuan is one of the most famous skillful craftmen in producing teapot, specilaly Tu Sa teapot It’s a pottery that originating from china It is distinguished by the type of rate soil, and u cant find it anywhere ANCIENT STOCK AND BAT TRANG POTTERY MARKET (HOANG THU ANH) 1.Ancient stock Now ancient stock be longs to hamlet 1, of Bat Trang ward is preserve and is a sightseeing tourist attracted address the history of Bat Trang village is about 500 year and nowadays Bat Trang village has many ancient houses Sourounding of the house are hight walls which wa made by contract brick Beside, there are winding hamlet with width about meter create a space architectural – culture very original • Van Van Houses Bat Trang Pottery Village Van Van house is located in a small alley next to Bat Trang pottery market House bring a feature to be nostalgic, pensive as is name There is place on display more than 300 ceramic artifacts with dating from the XV – XIX century by Tran Ngoc Lam’s collection The artifact cream of pottery in throughout length history • In Bat Trang villages still ancientcommunalhouse and temples Bat Trang pottery Market In October 2004 Bat Trang pottery market was opened There are various kinds of product separated into many small showroom for sale the pottery product: bowl, plates, decorations, worship, souvenir… Come to Bat Trang village not only keep sightseeing of the products in the market but also yet more know legde information to make pottery you can make the lovely thing pottery by hand made in the wheel Bat Trang Pottery Village Bat Trang Pottery Village 10 ... and PhuLang pottery village , Bat Trang pottery village is famous for enamels which make beautiful and elegant for products According to pottery artisans in the village, Bat Trang pottery has... establishment of Bat Trang pottery village And one of these tells that under Ly – Tran Dynasty, Bat Trang pottery village was established by the combination of famous families of Bo Bat village in... The artifact cream of pottery in throughout length history • In Bat Trang villages still ancientcommunalhouse and temples Bat Trang pottery Market In October 2004 Bat Trang pottery market was opened